Probably everyone already knows about this rock of discord. In the North Atlantic, a struggle is unfolding for the possession of the tiny Rockall rock (eng. Rockall). Great Britain, Ireland, Iceland and Denmark claim it. It is unlikely that a piece of land with an area of 570 square meters would have generated such interest if oil had not been found at the bottom under it (according to some reports, oil reserves of 100 billion pounds were found at the bottom.). Now the UN has to decide who will become the happy owner of the "golden rock".
Let's collect a bunch of information that is at this point:
Rockall is the surface of a once extinct volcano. There was no fresh water here, therefore, people could not live there. The only inhabitants of the islet are guillemots, northern cormorants and other birds that stop at Rockall during long-distance flights. Some birds even build nests on the rock. At the same time, many fish and mollusks swim in the surrounding waters. So the object to fight can be detected immediately - the possession of seafood.
Rockall is mentioned in Irish medieval folklore. There he appears as a mythical stone "Rockabarra", which should appear before the end of the world. As for the scientific description of the rock, it was made in 1703 by the Scotsman Martin Martin. He also pointed to the existence of the Irish legend of the Rockabarre. In general, descriptions are one darker than the other.
Rockall is an extremely small, uninhabited, remote, rocky island in the north Atlantic Ocean. He gave the name to one of the sea areas. In 1956, British scientist James Fisher named the island among the "most isolated pebbles in the world's oceans." The nearby Hasselwood Rock, 160-200 meters north, and a number of other rocks that make up the Helen's Reef are at least half Rockall's size and no more than one meter in height. Historically, the islet is featured in medieval Irish folklore as the mythical stone "Rocabarraigh", which is to appear three times before the end of the world. "When Rocabarraigh returns, the world will be destroyed." The first literary mentions of the island "Rokol" are found in the Scotsman Martin Martin in his "Description of the Western Isles of Scotland" published in 1703, he also writes,that "the inhabitants call this place 'Rokabarra'".
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Centuries passed, and Rockall had a reputation as a deadly place. So, in 1686 a fishing boat ran aground near it. In 1812, the research ship Leonidas sank here, 12 years later - the brigantine Elena Dundee. In 1904, near Rockall, the steamer Norway was wrecked on its way to New York. Then 635 people died, about 150 managed to escape.
Centuries passed, but no one was in a hurry to formalize their sovereignty over the unfortunate rock. Hardly anyone could resist the mistress of the seas of England - especially since Rockall lies not far from the British shores. But the British did not do this until 1955, when officers arrived on the island and planted the British flag and navigational beacons.
On September 18, 1955, officers were taken to the island by helicopter and installed a memorial plaque and the flag of Great Britain. On September 21, 1955, the official annexation of Rockall was announced by the Admiralty. Subsequently, navigation beacons were installed on the island. And the UK has said that no ship will be allowed within the 50-mile (80 km) zone around the cliff. True, the lighthouses broke down long ago.
In 1972, Rockall was announced to join the Scottish community of Harris. On February 10, 1972, the Rockall Island Act received royal assent, declaring the island an administrative part of the Harris region of Scotland. This was the last territorial expansion of the British Empire. In 1975, two Royal Marines in full dress uniform landed on the cliff. We took pictures and immediately flew back.
In 1975, two infantrymen were photographed in full dress, reassuring everyone that Rockall Island was part of Scotland, and flew away immediately.
Since then, however, the lighthouses have long been broken, although not a single foreigner dared to pull off the flag. Only the British did not show much concern for the rock - they even decided not to register their rights to Rockall through the UN. They reinforced their sovereignty with peculiar exotic antics. Former soldier and survival expert Tom McClean lived on the island for 40 days in a wooden box bolted to the rock on the Hall ledge from May 26, 1985 to July 4, 1985, to validate UK claims to the territory.
The first to encroach on British sovereignty over the islands were … Greenpeace activists. On June 10, 1997, three environmentalists occupied the islands for 42 days in protest against the British oil exploration in the area.
They lived in a yellow plastic capsule, tied to the island with 12 six-ton lines, and declared the island a "new global state", calling it Waveland - "land of waves", and offered citizenship to anyone sworn in. The near-political circus, however, did not last long.
In 2011, an expedition to Rockall was planned under the leadership of Nick Hancock to raise funds for the Help for Heroes charitable foundation. The task is to single-handedly survive on the island for 60 days, thereby setting a new record. Currently, the start of the project has been postponed.
So Rockall would have remained "either formally British, or nobody's," but scientists had to start researching the shelf around the rock for the presence of oil there. “Black gold” has been found - according to British experts, it can add 100 billion pounds to the treasury of the United Kingdom. It seems that there are also gas fields. Of course, such wealth does not lie either on the road or in the sea. And then other countries began to fuss.
Ireland, Iceland and Denmark decided to challenge the British for the right to exploration and seafaring near Rockall. The Icelanders and the Irish made a corresponding submission to the relevant UN commission. In the end, Great Britain did the same. Following them, Denmark began to process its application. The latter is expected to complete all documents by 2014.
Each side has its own arguments. The British point out that the closest territory to Rockall is Hirta Island, located off the northwest coast of Scotland. It is located 300 kilometers from Rockall, while Ireland, Iceland and the Danish Faroe Islands lie a little further. The British consider the rock an island - therefore, all waters around it should become the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of Great Britain.
Unlike its sworn neighbors, Ireland is trying to prove that Rockall is not an island, but a rock. According to international law, there can be no territorial waters around the rock. This means that the shelf should be divided depending on the distance from the shores of a particular country. And here the Irish argue that Rockall lies closest to them. The shores of the island of Great Britain are farther, and the island of Hirt, which formally belongs to Scotland, should not be taken into account.
Denmark has the weakest position in this dispute. The main part of the country is located far away, and it can "cling" to Rockall only thanks to the possession of the Faroe Islands located to the north of the cliff. The Danes claim that there is a certain microcontinent "Faroe Islands - Rockall Plateau" under the water. And if so, then Denmark can lay claim to the shelf not only near the Faroe Islands, but also near Rockall.
In turn, Iceland has little interest in the belonging of the rock itself. The northerners are fighting only for the delimitation of the underwater shelf near it in such a way that they get a tasty morsel. The Icelanders started working on their application to the UN back in 2001, and they were the first to file it. In addition, it was Iceland that initiated negotiations on controversial issues, and therefore, perhaps, the UN will appreciate its peacefulness.
Negotiations have been going on for five years, but no compromise has been reached. Denmark, Iceland and Ireland periodically discuss this issue without the participation of Great Britain, but so far it has not been possible to act as a united front against the British. It will hardly come to war. However, no one wants to share oil and seafood. Therefore, Rockall Rock has every chance of becoming a new arena for an international dispute, which is unlikely to be resolved without the participation of the UN.
The only permanent inhabitants of the island are the colonies of sea molluscs. A small number of birds, mainly fulmars, northern cormorants, black-footed kittiwakes and guillemots, use the rock for summer recreation. Cormorants and guillemots sometimes successfully breed here, if the summer is calm and storm waves have not swept the nests on the rock. In total, just over 20 species of seabirds and 6 other species of animals (including the aforementioned molluscs) are observed on or near the island.
